Nick Carroll claimed that this was a must have board for every serious surfer to ride waves like G-Land and Pipe. He says that the added control that the extreme channels give means you can ride a board half a foot shorter than a normal gun surfboard. The shorter length making the board a lot more maneuverable in the pocket.

Gary Elkerton with his 1985 7'4" Al Bryne shaped channel bottom thruster that he used to win the 1987 Sunset Beach Pro and the Pipe Masters.

Kong with Al Bryne shaped Hot Stuff at Op Pro Bondi. AB and friend on the far right of the pic.

I'm pleased to share with you this lovely little US made Tom Eberly shaped, Kong model Hot Stuff thruster from 1983 I saw for sale recently at Dana Point.

I thought to share it because my friend Aaron sent me a copy of Gary Elkerton's auto biography, that I'm currently enjoying.

Kong started his career with a board sponsorship from Paul Pascoe riding Pascoe Hopper surfboards from the Sunshine Coast in 1978.
In 1980 he swapped to Hot Stuff "the hippest surfboard company in OZ, as rock and roll and high profile as any surf hardware brand can be". At the time Hot stuff was owned by Paul Hallas and had a world class stable of artist / shapers including Al Bryne, Gil Glover, NP Snr.

At Hot Stuff Gary joined his friend and mentor Rabbit and co-conspirator Chappy Jennings.
But it was his partnership with Al Bryne, with Al's with unique deep channel bottom designs coupled with Kong's power surfing in big waves, that most produced some of the most iconic boards of the 80's.

IN the US Hot Stuff were shaped under licence by Tom Eberly and Bob Hurley

At the base of Damion Fuller's Board Collector blog is the motto: "Buy high, sell low, enjoy the ride." It's an excellent summation of the values Damion, an industrial designer by trade, adheres to when indulging his old fibreglass obsession. Rather than merely hoarding boards Damion has an express purpose - a method in his board collecting madness - and it's certainly not financial gain.

I recently spoke to Damion about collecting old boards and the passion that drives him:

Swellnet: How many boards do you have?

Damion Fuller: The number of boards I have is not important to me, I'm not about collecting for collecting sake. I like learning about design, functionality and history and there is no limit to what I want to learn. But for reference I have 120 boards that I've photographed and written about. I have another 10 or so in the US waiting to get cleaned up and test ridden and a similar number in Oz stashed under houses, in the rafters of garages and on 'permanent loan' to a few mates.

You only collect boards from 1975 to 1985, why's that?

I'm fascinated by the chapter of surfboard design history referred to as the innovation period or T2. If the first transition period was when surfboards went from 10 feet to 6 feet in length then T2, the second transition period was when boards went from single fins to twins to three fins and beyond.

The height of the innovation period was 1978 to 1982. Mark Richards was shaping and developing the modern twin fin, Cheyne Horan and Geoff McCoy were working on the no nose Lazor Zap that led to Simon Anderson refining the idea of the thruster. At the same time Col Smith and Al Byrne were working channel bottom designs that have led to the single to double concaves we ride today.

In addition to the wide variety of experimental hydrodynamic designs the boards of this era were still being comparatively heavily glassed, meaning many of the boards from this era remain ridable in their original condition today. Lastly this period was also a heyday for the now lost art of the airbrush. The majority of the boards of the period carry luscious sprays, unique pieces of art worthy of a gallery hanging in their own right.

Reading your blog you elevate surfboard design to something beyond mere utility, do you have a particular ethos or view of the surfboard as an object?

My philosophy is surfboards of this period are truly a form of applied art. I surf and I studied industrial design so I'm very aware of the technical design and functionality of the board but I'm also attracted to their aesthetics. The early 80's was still pre-shaping machines so these boards are one part unique hand made sculptures, one part experiment in hydrodynamic design, and one part new wave painting. Most importantly, I collect the boards to ride, I'm most interested to see how they perform in the water.

There are a number of ideas that were laughed at the time or simply went out of fashion that are still viable today. Two examples I can think of are the 5'8" single fin Geoff McCoy shaped Cheyne Horan to ride at Waimea bay. A lot of thought went into the lines of that board but the attempt to ride a short board in big waves was ridiculed at the time. The evolution of super short tow-in surfboards has taught us they were on to something.

Another example is Bob Hurley's re-release of the twin fin design he developed with Rabbit Bartholomew in 1983. An exact replica of this model is one of hottest selling models in the US today. Josh Kerr's Bali single by Rusty is identical to a 1980 Peter Schroff shaped single fin I have. I could go on...

How do you feel about bog standard board collectors, people who collect without any purpose other than material acquisition?

I really like collectors who a have a very specific passion. Through my blog I've met a collector in Sydney who only collects shapers from North Narrabeen, a collector in Texas who only collects Lightning Bolt twin fins, a collector in Laguna who only likes Dick Brewer guns, a collector from the big island of Hawaii who is obsessed with the work of the Campbell brothers and their Bonzer design. What I don't like are hoarders who don't share their collections, keep them locked away and don't ride the boards.

I have formed some good friendships with my fellow collector and bloggers: Alasdair in the UK; Stephanie in France; Chris and Mark in California. They are all linked to on my blog. Other good friend collectors I have met include North Coast Gav, Marty H and uncle Keith.

The good news is I'm more interested in the history of a board and its design than I am in a mint condition board that has never been ridden and I can still find sunburned and slightly beat up boards from the late 70's and 80's under $100. Unfortunately the growth in the interest in collecting vintage surfboards has pushed the average price of a nice condition 30 to 40 year old board over $1000 and well outside my reach.

And how do you feel about retro remakes?

The funny thing about retro remakes is if you're willing to make the effort you can find an original example of the same design for around the same price or cheaper, so there's no point in it for me. But I'm pleased that original shapers are getting paid for their groundbreaking work a second time, and in some instances for the first time.

Reckon you could be considered a historian of sorts?

I am honoured to have been able to work as an expert appraiser by Scott Bass who does the Sacred Craft and Boardroom surfboard shows in California and by Randy Rarick who does the Vintage Hawaiian Island Surf Auction in Honolulu. I do know a lot about a small part of surf history so I guess that qualifies me as a historian or expert in the field of late 70's early 80's surfboard design. They even had me on Antiques Roadshow one time.

Who's your favourite shaper and why?

It's very difficult to choose an all time favourite shaper but it's hard to go past the ultimate poet warrior, the supremely talented and humble, Mark Richards. Trained under Dick Brewer in Hawaii he not only designed and shaped his own boards, but he competed on them and went on to win four world titles. It was his twin fin designs that pushed Geoff McCoy to develop the Lazor Zap and Simon Anderson to develop the Thruster.

Do you have a white whale out there, a board you'd chase to the ends of the Earth to ride and stick in your collection? What is it and why the allure?

I'm very keen to get my hands on early 80's Shawn Stussy shaped twin fin. Not many surfers today know that Shawn shaped boards prior to the launch of his clothing line. He was a very influential shaper as part of the Echo Beach movement that was taking place in Newport Beach, California, in the early 80's. He made beautiful boards with beautiful sprays. He didn't produce a high volume of them and they were sought after at the time and not many exist today.

Whenever one comes up for sale they are snatched up pretty quickly. I did miss one on eBay in Melbourne that sold for $130 recently and I saw one in a second hand store in Tokyo. I did find a nice late 70's Russel twin fin shaped by Shawn Stussy, which is the label he was working for before he started Stussy, but I'm yet to get my hands on one to ride.

I've been writing this blog for close to five years and I've been obsessed with Lightning Bolt twin fins for a lot longer than that.

In that time I've never, never seen this many Bolt twins apear on the scene at any one time.

Five in the last fortnight!!

Rory Russell

This lovely little Rory Russell model is terrorizing me at the moment and threatening to ruin my family's Xmas when I'm forced tell them that there is no food for Xmas dinner cause Daddy bought another surfboard.

Rory Russell

This Team Bolt is the only one I've ever seen become available for sale with the classic Rory spray.

It went off on eBay with zero bids and would have cleaned up very nicely.

Like some kind of torture, another Rory Russell Lightning Bolt twin fin has just popped up to further torment me.

But the worst case of all was this little board collectors nightmare.

6'1, my ideal length, and painted all over with green house paint and black spray paint (as have been all my best finds). They left just enough of the original logo showing through and the fins, flyers and swallow tail, to let me know that this is almost definatatley another Rory Russell model.

Note the centre position of the black leg rope plug.

You just know that if I would have been able to get the chance to clean it up it would have been better than the board in the first pic. Or more likely it could have been snapped, dinged and trashed.

But it dosent matter, because it sold before I could get to it for $50.

At the same time this quirky little number has appeared.

Not really my cup of tea but damn I love that Team Bolt Japan logo.

In the middle of this malstrom I met Bobby from Texas, who has got the Bolt bug as bad as I do.

1982 Stubbies Surf Classic Burleigh

The 82 Stubbies was the pinicle of inovation period surfing and surfboard design. The heats included Mark Richards on his own hand shaped twin fin design, Cheyne Horan (winning) on a Geoff McCoy Laser Zap design with Ben Lexan designed winged Star fin, Rabbit Barthlemow on a channel bottom rounded pin tail Hot Stuff, Dane Kealoa on a T&C twin fin and Simon Anderson on his new 3 fin thruster design. Never before or since has there been such a variety of cutting edge surfboard design in one place.

Innovation Period - Definition

The innovation period of surfboard design has also been described as 'T2'. Meaning the second transition period, the first transition period of surfboard design was from late 60's to the early 70's, or short board revolution, where boards went from long boards (10') to short boards (6'), an exciting time for the likes of Dick Brewer and Bob Mc Tavish, who were sawing a foot off their boards at a time. The second transition period was from the late 70's to the early 80's when surf boards went from 1 fin to 3 fins and beyond.

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About Me

I've been collecting innovation period surf boards since 1990. I was trained as an industrial designer and I love surfboards as pieces of hydrodynamic design. I am an art lover and I appreciate surfboards as hand crafted sculptures and I admire their graphic designs and art works. Mainly I am a dedicated surfer and regularly surf each of the boards in my collection.